Acussed of racist insults, police came round!

[HeUseToBringMeRoses]

Aibu to think this woman should be charged with with wasting police time ?

Long story so please bear with me. I am a regular who had name changed and I'm not out to start some kind of racism argument.

My ds is ill with flu and finally took him to the gp today and he has been given ab's for an ear infection. I then had to drag a poorly crying child to the chemist.

We got the prescription and was trying to manage a few bags and carry ds who was crying. It's fair to say I was harassed. I got to the door and an Asian lady ( yes that's relevant) was coming in and she held the door. To my shame I didn't say thankyou but I was so harressed. She muttered something to me about being rude, and to be fair Id have been the same.

I got outside and was putting ds into his car seat when this lady came out. Her car was parked right next to mine. I looked up and said 'look I'm sorry about not saying thanks I was just so distracted by my son' she launched into a big attack on me telling me I was rude and inconsiderate. So I basically said I was sorry again but there was no need for her to get so aggressive. She then started ranting big time so I just got in the car and drove off. Didn't think much about it for the rest of the day.

Next day ds was still poorly. Just after lunch there was a knock and it was the police. They came in and a rather brupt pc told me they'd had a complaint of racist abuse against me. They wanted me to the station with them. I explained I had nobody to watch ds so they agreed that I could attend the next day. Very horrible female pc said if it wasn't for ds she would arrest me.

I was in absolute bits, dh had to come home from work.

Next morning we attended the police station and although I wasn't arrested I had to give an interview under caution. It was only then that I found out exactly what was happening.

The lady from the day before had phoned the police after I had left in my car. She said I told her to 'shut up p@@@i and that'd I said she should f'off back to her own country. She said she then got in her car and that I was dragging my ds by the arm to the car and that he was upset and screaming and that I was shouting and swearing at him.

There is absolutely no truth in anything she said. Fortunately the policeman who interviewed us knew her of old and told us this woman has a history of fabricating stories and reporting people to the police.

Why the hell would somebody do something like that? It's not a game where you can trbandget somebody arrested just because they piss you off. And shouldn't the police do some about the fact that she I'd wasting police time?

Have to go now as my baby is waking up. Will check back in tomorrow

Why don't they charge the woman with being a public nuisance?

If she is known to them and does this on a regular basis, then this is what they should be doing. Not dragging some poor woman down to the police station.

The police are probably scared they will be accused of racial discrimination if they charge her.

I think you need to check about the caution bit because I'm pretty sure it will show up on an enhanced CRB. Please check with the police or ring the CRB people - they have a website and contact information. I had to ring them a few times this year and they have been really helpful.

The police should have been far more polite. Have they apologised? I think you should note your concerns in writing and if I were you I would trot off to CAB with copy of letter and seek advice about civil recourse against this woman if anything else happens again. Did the pharmacy staff witness anything.

How frightening and how powerless this would have made you feel.

Agree with madamdeathstare

Teach this stupid woman a lesson and sue her for defamation of character or whatever it is you can do.

I despise people like that - usin their race to complain etc. I am not British by the way but I would never ever use the race card and take advantage.

What an awful nasty woman! She really needs to be taught a lesson so she doesn't do this again. She is doing a huge disservice to everyone who suffers REAL racism by inventing it

I am sorry you had to go through this

Teach her a lesson!

What a horrible experience

When you feel better and life has settled down I would really consider contacting your local police to discuss the insensitive manner in which you were treated.

Agree with Madamdeathstare.

Terrible situation for you to be put in [and to be threatened with arrest in front of your son I think [if you can] you should use legal process to do something about this horrible woman. The next person she falsely accuses might get in real trouble!

And the police woman's conduct was appalling too.

Sorry can't be more help but perhaps some legal eagle will come along with sound advice.

Good luck!

I'm not a lawyer/atty but I watch court shows and the judges always clarify what can and or cannot be construed as slander and defamation.

So as far as I can tell as a layman....

To have a case for slander the person would have had to say something that she knows to be untrue with the intent to cause harm/mayhem, which she did.

For defamation of character you would have to prove that her accusations were believed and caused you harm - personally or professionally. Check about whether it will be on CRB.

You poor thing how scary! At least the police believe you.

If she does it a lot she must have some MH issues, of course that's not much consolation to you though :(

Or she might just be a total bitch?

I'd also wonder if you didn't have a case for slander and defamation of character. Fight malicious falsehood with fire, as it were.

I've namechanged for this post and have a small idea of how you feel. I was accused by my DH's ex of hitting their child and this was apparently reported by her to the Police and Social Services.

Despite me and DH having had no contact from either the police or SS after the allegations were made she continued to repeat the allegations in solicitors letters and in the Family Court.

I was incredibly distressed by this and felt totally helpless particularly as I wasn't even given a chance to defend myself and "clear my name". On the plus side because I haven't been contacted by anybody investigating this I've been advised that they are not investigating it and if there had been any concerns we would have heard from them immediately.

However, what I'm getting at is that I instructed a solicitor to write to her indicating that if she did not stop repeating the allegations I would sue for defamation. It was possible to do this because I know who it is making the allegations whereas in your case it is effectively a random woman in the street, although she is known to the Police.

Although I was advised that if I sued rather than me proving I didn't hit her child, she would need to prove that I had, which is not possible as it didn't happen and therefore she would be unlikely to win, I was also advised that I would need between £3000-8000 to sue her and you can't often claim costs.

So I'm afraid that if you don't happen to have a large pot of cash hanging around spare, I would try to move on and forget about it which I know is easier said than done.

I really hope you feel better today and you are definitely not being unreasonable in wanting her charged with wasting police time but I suspect that that is unlikely to happen.

Think snowyshowers is right. It's sad and very wrong. Luckily when I deal with the police I think our name comes up and they are excrutiatingly, embarassingly polite and it's really quite sickening.

There are a number of issues here:

1. If the woman in question is known to the police, that would be why they got a particular officer to deal with the interview and also why they interviewed you under caution rather than going through the formal arrest procedure. Those type of interviews are gnerally used when the police know perfectly well that it isn't going anywhere but they have to treat the complaint seriously.

2. The female officer may not have had this specific knowledge. A complaint goes into the system and is assigned to someone in the appropriate dept - they wouldn't go around asking if anyone knew the complainant. I would imagine the penny dropped before the interview.

3. You would have been offered legal advice - it is part of the blurb at the beginning of the interview and you would have to say you were happy for the interview to continue. You may have been too upset to recall that.

4. The comment by the police officer about arresting you probably wasn't intended to be threatening - the police are supposed to be very clear about their intentions and the implications. I would imagine she was trying to make it clear that you had to attend the following day and impress upon you the seriousness. Or she might just have had an attitude problem.

5. The caution referred to is the formal warning at the start of the interview, not a criminal caution so won't show up on a CRB check as an earlier poster said it would. They are two different things that happen to have the same name. The only thing that could ever show up would be the fact of this complaint and the outcome. This will be on the police national computer but it should have a note stating that the allegation was believed to be malicious.

6. Don't waste your time suing. You would have to prove some sort of damages. You won't be able to do that.

7. I would not be inclined to make a complaint as the only real issue would be, possibly, the rudeness of the police officer who came to your house. Based on what you have said here, your complaint would not get anywhere.

8. The woman in question, unfortunately, has to be taken seriously. They can't afford to write off her complaints as one day one might be true. There are other things they can consider to deal with the problem but they can't just tell her to bugger off and stop bothering them. All they can do is deal with it in as low key a way as possible, hence the course of action they took.

Sorry you have had such an unpleasant experience and I know that the instinctive response is to think "bloody police" but I don't think they could have done much different. Think "bloody woman" all you like though!

I should clarify - I am a criminal lawyer, not a police officer!

There's a mum at our school who does this kind of thing regularly. A friend of mine had the police take a statement from her because she apparently pushed past this mum in the alley.

She's well known to the police, she isn't allowed in the playground because of her accusations. She harassed one of the ta's to thecpoint she was given an asbo saying she wasn't allowed near the school

Most of the time the people she accuses have never met her either

So yes there are some very nutty people out there and it's really upsetting. Try not to let it bother you if you know this woman is as nutty as the mum from our school

you need lodge a complaint and against the polices handling of this and possibly of harrasment against the woman.

are in scottland or england as this may have some bearing on the out comes against the woman if you are in scottland I belive.

the reason I say this is that if interviewed under caution this will be logged on your record and will show up on police checks and crb.

how awfull for you.

sometimes this kind of thing gets punished but not very often. And in this case, it probably wouldn't have if it hadn't been a false claim against a police officer, and if there hadn't been an on-board camera in the police car recording the exact details of the event to prove outright that the woman was lying.

Sorry you have had this situation happen to you - very unlucky indeed. :(

I would look into bringing a civil case against her, but I'm not sure you would get much, if anything, if you have not incurred a financial loss.

Wrong though, this woman sounds like she has serious issues and should be dealt with. You feel awful understandably, bt at least you had DH to support you. next time she could do this to someone who is vulnerable or on their own and create a nervous wreck.

I also just wanted to say that I don't know much about CRB checks and how they work, but I was arreasted in my home last year, and had to have an enhanced CRB check this year and nothing showed up. Before you all start thinking I am some major criminal, I was arrested because I got caught on a speed camera but as I'd recently moved and I'm scatty and unorganised I'd forgotten to change my address with the DVLA. So they sent the penalty to my old house and when I didn't respond they sent me a court date. Of course I didn't know this was happening as everything was going to my old address so when I didn't turn up in court they issued a warrant for my arrest! It was all fine though, the police officer that arrested me was lovely and I just had to pay a small fine in the end, but like I say, nothing showed up on the CRB so I hope that might put your mind at rest a bit.

There just are people out there like that. Last year my neighbour offered to help a woman whose car was stranded on an icy road. She was stalled (it appeared) in the middle of the street, so the neighbour got out of her car and went to offer her a jump start. A week later the police arrived at her door with the information that she had been accused with racist abuse and ramming the woman's car, causing damage. Fortunately there was a witness, DH.

The Police made 4 separate appointments to come and see DH to take a statement and didn't turn up to a single one, nor did they have the curtesy to cancel. Finally, in disgust, DH went down to the station and made a scene until his statement was taken. This was then not passed to the CPS. The whole thing dragged on for 9 months, ending up in a court hearing. Again, the Police didn't pass on DH's statement so our neighbour's Legal Aid lawyer was very surprised when the neighbour pointed out there was a witness who had been interviewed by the Police. DH said the whole court case was a farce. The other woman had described the neighbour as a large, dark haired woman who was intimidating and threatening. Neighbour is a petite 5 foot 2 blonde who had had a C Section birth 8 weeks earlier and had only just been allowed back driving as she had been very ill afterwards. Once DH gave his evidence (dressed in a suit with a middle class job, he stood out like an alien in that environment), the prosecution lawyer lent over and said to the defence lawyer "Well that will be a not guilty then".

So, after nearly a year of stress, my neighbour now has a record of being arrested, accused, tried and found not guilty. All, we suspect because she had dinged her car and wanted to claim on the insurance.

sounds awful and your one sounds like a nightmare but on what grounds would she have a civil case?

The grounds for a civil case could be that OP could miss out on future job prospects having been falsely arrested. Maybe loss of earnings for her DH if as he took time off work to acompany Op to the police station, although I guess you could argue that he didn't have to be there.

I'm just guessing though, I have no idea really, I just watch too much Judge Judy!

but she wasn't arrested.
She'd have to show damages and while it sounds like a crap experience and more hassle than anyone would ever want I can't see how she'd show damages.